U of AZ Humanities Class "What is Politics"

All days start with a magnificent sunrise

Off to Tucson and the University of Arizona.  I've walked around the campus a bit

A forest of palm trees

I am fascinated by the rocks in Arizona.  Not sure what these are.  It is a seriously strong "fence" around a lovely shaded park.

This is one of the buildings for the Arizona State Museum.

Women's Pavilion

Inside each arch is dedicated to someone or some group.

 The bluish circles are glass mosaic titles

The plague below says "Waiting for Grandfather."

 “Every detail has meaning to me because every piece begins deep inside me,” Suazo is quoted in the release commenting about the work. “The young woman is waiting anxiously to see grandfather, to show her baby to him because he has not yet seen the child. The belt around her skirt is like the one my grandmother used to wear. The stair step design at the bottom of the woman’s skirt represents the steps we take in life.”
Of the stair step design, Suazo, a former student of New Mexico sculptor Allan Houser, explains, “A few designs have special meaning to me and so I use them over and over.” The stair step design is one.


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Old Main" a beautiful building

This U of AZ building is called the "Canyon." The undulating walls resemble the sides of a mountain canyon.  The vines that are hanging down are actually butterfly incubators.  The larvae feed on the leaves and come spring, the "canyon: will be full of butterflies.  I'm not sure if we will get to see that.  Our classroom is on the first floor to the right.

This is one half of the classroom. We met a very nice couple from Canada. Chris and Bob.  Chris was a social worker originally from England, with a delightful accent.  Bob  was born in Milwaukee and was an aerospace engineer with Bombardier.  We sit together and discuss what we've read and wonder how we missed all the history presented in class.  We plan to celebrate the end of the class with a dinner somewhere.




















We signed up for this "What is Politics" class because we had such a wonderful class last year (Ever
Changing Brain) from the Humanities organization at U of AZ.  And because we heard a lecture by Professor Noam Chomskey in 2013.  He and Professor Marv Waterstone lead Tuesday and Thursday lectures on the history of democracy and the current challenges.  The class is 250 undergrad students and 250 "older" students in a large classroom with very comfortable seats.  There is a vigorous load of required reading for the students and optional for us.  But it is very interesting reading, very thought provoking.  It keeps us busy keeping up the chapters and articles.  Most valuable was a tape of Eisenhower's Farewell speech warning of a military industrial complex. It is a speech by a great statesman.  It's been a while since we've heard a speech that sounded like a real dedicated leader for our country.